Legio VIII Augusta ("Augustus' Eighth Legion") was one of the oldest legions of the Imperial Roman army .
68-610: They were ordered to Cisalpine Gaul around 58 BC by Julius Caesar and marched with him throughout the entirety of the Gallic Wars , especially during the battles of Gergovie and Alesia . During the war the legion won the title "Gallica." It also earned a reputation for courage. They stood with him at the Battle of Pharsalus . The legion was also present in Egypt , when Caesar captured Egypt for Cleopatra . In 46 BC, it took part in
136-472: A Brittonic language of northern Britain. Celtic regions of mainland Europe are those whose residents claim a Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language survives; these include western Iberia, i.e. Portugal and north-central Spain ( Galicia , Asturias , Cantabria , Castile and León , Extremadura ). Continental Celts are the Celtic-speaking people of mainland Europe and Insular Celts are
204-705: A Celtic language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), the oldest of which pre-date the La Tène period . Other early inscriptions, appearing from the early La Tène period in the area of Massilia , are in Gaulish , which was written in the Greek alphabet until the Roman conquest. Celtiberian inscriptions, using their own Iberian script, appear later, after about 200 BC. Evidence of Insular Celtic
272-568: A borrowing from Frankish * Walholant , 'Roman-land' (see Gaul: Name ) , the root of which is Proto-Germanic * walha- , 'foreigner, Roman, Celt', whence the English word Welsh ( Old English wælisċ ). Proto-Germanic * walha comes from the name of the Volcae , a Celtic tribe who lived first in southern Germany and central Europe, then migrated to Gaul. This means that English Gaul , despite its superficial similarity,
340-830: A collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia , identified by their use of Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the Gauls ; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci of Iberia; the Britons , Picts , and Gaels of Britain and Ireland; the Boii ; and the Galatians . The interrelationships of ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world are unclear and debated; for example over
408-760: A common cultural and linguistic heritage more than a genetic one. Celtic cultures seem to have been diverse, with the use of a Celtic language being the main thing they had in common. Today, the term 'Celtic' generally refers to the languages and cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall , the Isle of Man , and Brittany ; also called the Celtic nations . These are the regions where Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent. The four are Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton ; plus two recent revivals, Cornish (a Brittonic language ) and Manx (a Goidelic language ). There are also attempts to reconstruct Cumbric ,
476-637: A limited period, approximately a century, after which it blended with the Ligurian aboriginal populations to create the new Golasecca culture . The Culture of Golasecca (9th to 4th centuries BC) spread between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age in the areas of northwestern Lombardy and Piedmont , and the Canton Ticino . At the end of the prehistoric period , this
544-660: A possible relationship between them and the Ambrones of northern Europe. Little is known of the Ligurian language. Only place names and personal names remain. It appears to be an Indo-European language with both Italic and particularly strong Celtic affinities. Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were known in antiquity as Celto-Ligurians (in Greek Κελτολίγυες , Keltolígues). Modern linguists, like Xavier Delamarre , argue that Ligurian
612-754: A result, these items quickly became associated with the Celts, so much so that by the 1870s scholars began to regard finds of the La Tène as 'the archaeological expression of the Celts'". This cultural network was overrun by the Roman Empire, though traces of La Tène style were still seen in Gallo-Roman artifacts . In Britain and Ireland, the La Tène style survived precariously to re-emerge in Insular art . The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to be challenged in
680-633: A rethinking of the meaning of "Celtic". John T. Koch and Barry Cunliffe have developed this 'Celtic from the West' theory. It proposes that the proto-Celtic language arose along the Atlantic coast and was the lingua franca of the Atlantic Bronze Age cultural network, later spreading inland and eastward. More recently, Cunliffe proposes that proto-Celtic had arisen in the Atlantic zone even earlier, by 3000 BC, and spread eastwards with
748-535: A revival. The first recorded use of the name 'Celts' – as Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) in Ancient Greek – was by Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus in 517 BC, when writing about a people living near Massilia (modern Marseille ), southern Gaul . In the fifth century BC, Herodotus referred to Keltoi living around the source of the Danube and in the far west of Europe. The etymology of Keltoi
SECTION 10
#1732775465938816-668: A single culture or ethnic group. A new theory suggested that Celtic languages arose earlier, along the Atlantic coast (including Britain, Ireland, Armorica and Iberia ), long before evidence of 'Celtic' culture is found in archaeology. Myles Dillon and Nora Kershaw Chadwick argued that "Celtic settlement of the British Isles" might date to the Bell Beaker culture of the Copper and Bronze Age (from c. 2750 BC). Martín Almagro Gorbea (2001) also proposed that Celtic arose in
884-540: A tribal surname, which epigraphic findings have confirmed. A Latin name for the Gauls, Galli ( pl. ), may come from a Celtic ethnic name, perhaps borrowed into Latin during the Celtic expansion into Italy from the early fifth century BC. Its root may be Proto-Celtic *galno , meaning "power, strength" (whence Old Irish gal "boldness, ferocity", Welsh gallu "to be able, power"). The Greek name Γαλάται ( Galatai , Latinized Galatae ) most likely has
952-510: Is not actually derived from Latin Gallia (which should have produced * Jaille in French), though it does refer to the same ancient region. Celtic refers to a language family and, more generally, means 'of the Celts' or 'in the style of the Celts'. Several archaeological cultures are considered Celtic, based on unique sets of artefacts. The link between language and artefact is aided by
1020-534: Is primarily a linguistic label. In his 'Celtic from the Centre' theory, he argues that the proto-Celtic language did not originate in central Europe nor the Atlantic, but in-between these two regions. He suggests that it "emerged as a distinct Indo-European dialect around the second millennium BC , probably somewhere in Gaul [centered in modern France] ... whence it spread in various directions and at various speeds in
1088-502: Is unclear. Possible roots include Indo-European * kʲel 'to hide' (seen also in Old Irish ceilid , and Modern Welsh celu ), * kʲel 'to heat' or * kel 'to impel'. It may come from the Celtic language . Linguist Kim McCone supports this view and notes that Celt- is found in the names of several ancient Gauls such as Celtillus, father of Vercingetorix . He suggests it meant the people or descendants of "the hidden one", noting
1156-662: The Histories of Herodotus, which placed the Celts at the source of the Danube . However, Stephen Oppenheimer shows that Herodotus seemed to believe the Danube rose near the Pyrenees , which would place the Ancient Celts in a region which is more in agreement with later classical writers and historians (i.e. in Gaul and Iberia). The theory was also partly based on the abundance of inscriptions bearing Celtic personal names in
1224-530: The 3rd millennium BC , suggesting that the spread of the Bell Beaker culture explained the wide dispersion of the Celts throughout western Europe, as well as the variability of the Celtic peoples. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Alberto J. Lorrio and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero reviewed and built on Almagro Gorbea's work to present a model for the origin of Celtic archaeological groups in Iberia and proposing
1292-482: The Adriatic Sea . In 49 BC, all inhabitants of Cisalpine Gaul received Roman citizenship , and eventually the province was divided among four of the eleven regions of Italy : Regio VIII Gallia Cispadana , Regio IX Liguria , Regio X Venetia et Histria , and Regio XI Gallia Transpadana . The Canegrate culture (13th century BC) may represent the first migratory wave of the proto-Celtic population from
1360-483: The Battle of Thapsus near what is now Bakalta, Tunisia shortly before their disbandment. In 44 BC, Octavian reconstituted the legion that had helped him attain the control of the Roman Empire . In 43 BC it took part in the siege of the Battle of Mutina (current Modena) by Marc Antony , defended by the troops of Decimus Brutus , which earned Legio VIII Gallica the nickname "Mutinensis". In or before 9 AD
1428-574: The Battle of the Ticinus , leading all the Gauls except for the Cenomani to join the insurgency. Rome then sent the army of Tiberius Sempronius Longus who engaged Hannibal in the Battle of the Trebia , also resulting in a Roman defeat, forcing Rome to temporarily abandon Gallia Cisalpina altogether, returning only after the defeat of Carthage in 202 BC. Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica completed
SECTION 20
#17327754659381496-654: The Danube has its most southern bend and from where the legion controlled a long section of the river. The legion received the title "BIS AUGUSTA" (twice August) for their actions in Thrace. After Nero 's death in 69 it gave up this title and in the confusion of the Year of the Four Emperors , the legion voted for Otho and sent a detachment of 2000 men to Italy (as did the 7th and the 3rd legions). Soon after Otho's death,
1564-704: The Gaels ( Irish , Scots and Manx ) and the Celtic Britons ( Welsh , Cornish , and Bretons ) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Britain, Ireland, and other European territories such as Galicia . Today, Irish , Scottish Gaelic , Welsh , and Breton are still spoken in parts of their former territories, while Cornish and Manx are undergoing
1632-599: The Golasecca culture , which is nowadays identified with the Celtic Lepontii. According to Livy (v. 34), the Bituriges , Arverni , Senones , Aedui , Ambarri , Carnutes , and Aulerci led by Bellovesus , arrived in northern Italy during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus (7th–6th century BC) and occupied the area between Milan and Cremona . Milan ( Mediolanum ) itself was presumably founded by Gauls in
1700-541: The Iberian Peninsula , Ireland and Britain. The languages developed into Celtiberian , Goidelic and Brittonic branches, among others. The mainstream view during most of the twentieth century is that the Celts and the proto-Celtic language arose out of the Urnfield culture of central Europe around 1000 BC, spreading westward and southward over the following few hundred years. The Urnfield culture
1768-537: The Lepontic inscriptions from the 6th century BC. Continental Celtic languages are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names. Insular Celtic languages are attested from the 4th century AD in Ogham inscriptions , though they were being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with Old Irish texts around the 8th century AD. Elements of Celtic mythology are recorded in early Irish and early Welsh literature. Most written evidence of
1836-564: The Po River ) and the Alps, while Gallia Cispadana was the part to the south of the river. Probably officially established around 81 BC, the province was governed from Mutina (modern-day Modena ), where, in 73 BC, forces under Spartacus defeated the legion of Gaius Cassius Longinus , the provincial governor. In 49 BC, with the Lex Roscia , Julius Caesar granted to the populations of
1904-577: The Roman Republic in the 200s BC, it was considered geographically part of Roman Italy but remained administratively separated until 42 BC. It was a Roman province from c. 81 BC until 42 BC, when it was de jure merged into Roman Italy as already planned by Julius Caesar . Cisalpine means "on this side of the Alps " (from the perspective of the Romans), as opposed to Transalpine Gaul ("on
1972-590: The Second Punic War , the Boii and Insubres allied themselves with the Carthaginians, laying siege to Mutina ( Modena ). In response, Rome sent an expedition led by L. Manlius Vulso . Vulso's army was ambushed twice, and the Senate sent Scipio with an additional force to provide support. These were the Roman forces encountered by Hannibal after he crossed the Alps. The Romans were defeated in
2040-679: The Veneti had been so Celticized that Polybius wrote that the Veneti of the 2nd century BC were identical to the Gauls except for their language. The Greek historian Strabo (64 BC–AD 24), on the other hand, conjectured that the Adriatic Veneti were descended from Celts, who in turn were related to a later Celtic tribe of the same name whose members lived on the Armorican coast and fought against Julius Caesar . He further suggested that
2108-464: The first millennium BC ". Sims-Williams says this avoids the problematic idea "that Celtic was spoken over a vast area for a very long time yet somehow avoided major dialectal splits", and "it keeps Celtic fairly close to Italy, which suits the view that Italic and Celtic were in some way linked ". The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age. The earliest records of
Legio VIII Augusta - Misplaced Pages Continue
2176-1244: The 9th century BC. There is some debate whether the Lepontic language should be considered as a Gaulish dialect or an independent branch within Continental Celtic . Apart from Lepontic, the "Cisalpine Gaulish language" proper would be the Gaulish language as spoken by the Gauls invading northern Italy in the 4th century BC. This is a dialect of the larger Gaulish language, with some known phonetic features distinguishing it from Transalpine dialects, such as -nn- replacing -nd- and s(s) replacing -χs- . Celts Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Celts ( / k ɛ l t s / KELTS , see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( / ˈ k ɛ l t ɪ k / KEL -tik ) were
2244-473: The Bell Beaker culture over the following millennium. His theory is partly based on glottochronology , the spread of ancient Celtic-looking placenames, and thesis that the Tartessian language was Celtic. However, the proposal that Tartessian was Celtic is widely rejected by linguists, many of whom regard it as unclassified. Celticist Patrick Sims-Williams (2020) notes that in current scholarship, 'Celt'
2312-479: The Britons resembled the Gauls in customs and religion. For at least 1,000 years the name Celt was not used at all, and nobody called themselves Celts or Celtic, until from about 1700, after the word 'Celtic' was rediscovered in classical texts, it was applied for the first time to the distinctive culture, history, traditions, language of the modern Celtic nations – Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and
2380-566: The Celtic-speaking people of the British and Irish islands, and their descendants. The Celts of Brittany derive their language from migrating Insular Celts from Britain and so are grouped accordingly. The Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages . By the time Celts are first mentioned in written records around 400 BC, they were already split into several language groups, and spread over much of western mainland Europe,
2448-599: The Celts with the Iron Age Hallstatt culture which followed it ( c. 1200 –500 BC), named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt , Austria, and with the following La Tène culture ( c. 450 BC onward), named after the La Tène site in Switzerland. It proposes that Celtic culture spread westward and southward from these areas by diffusion or migration . A newer theory, " Celtic from
2516-631: The Danube legions voted for Vespasian and went with him to Mirebeau-sur-Bèze in Gaul where it built its new base in 70 to oppose the revolts of the Treveri and especially the Ubii and Lingones against Rome. After restoration of Rome`s rule in the North in or before 86, the legion moved to its new headquarters at Argentoratum in Germania Superior (now Strasbourg ), where the main part of
2584-574: The Eastern Hallstatt region ( Noricum ). However, Patrick Sims-Williams notes that these date to the later Roman era, and says they suggest "relatively late settlement by a Celtic-speaking elite". In the late 20th century, the Urnfield-Hallstatt theory began to fall out of favour with some scholars, which was influenced by new archaeological finds. 'Celtic' began to refer primarily to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to
2652-403: The Eighth Legion Augusta. Brougham ( Brocavum ). CIL VII 300 = RIB 782. Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul ( Latin : Gallia Cisalpina , also called Gallia Citerior or Gallia Togata ) was the name given, especially during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, to a region of land inhabited by Celts ( Gauls ), corresponding to what is now most of northern Italy. After its conquest by
2720-447: The Gauls claimed descent from an underworld god (according to Commentarii de Bello Gallico ), and linking it with the Germanic Hel . Others view it as a name coined by Greeks; among them linguist Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel , who suggests it meant "the tall ones". In the first century BC, Roman leader Julius Caesar reported that the Gauls called themselves 'Celts', Latin : Celtae , in their own tongue . Thus whether it
2788-405: The Greeks to apply this name for the type of Keltoi that they usually encountered". Because Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland Κελτοί ( Keltoi ) or Celtae , some scholars prefer not to use the term for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands. However, they spoke Celtic languages, shared other cultural traits, and Roman historian Tacitus says
Legio VIII Augusta - Misplaced Pages Continue
2856-425: The Isle of Man. 'Celt' is a modern English word, first attested in 1707 in the writing of Edward Lhuyd , whose work, along with that of other late 17th-century scholars, brought academic attention to the languages and history of the early Celtic inhabitants of Great Britain. The English words Gaul , Gauls ( pl. ) and Gaulish (first recorded in the 16–17th centuries) come from French Gaule and Gaulois ,
2924-493: The West ", suggests proto-Celtic arose earlier, was a lingua franca in the Atlantic Bronze Age coastal zone, and spread eastward. Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. After the Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe in the 3rd century BC, Celtic culture reached as far east as central Anatolia , Turkey . The earliest undisputed examples of Celtic language are
2992-450: The arrival of Urnfield migratory wave of populations from the northwest part of the Alps that, crossing the alpine passes, had infiltrated and settled in the western Po area between Lake Maggiore and the Lake of Como (see Scamozzina culture ). They were bearers of a new funerary practice, which supplanted the old culture of inhumation and instead introduced cremation . The population of Canegrate maintained its own homogeneity for
3060-567: The burials "dated to roughly the time when Celts are mentioned near the Danube by Herodotus , Ramsauer concluded that the graves were Celtic". Similar sites and artifacts were found over a wide area, which were named the 'Hallstatt culture'. In 1857, the archaeological site of La Tène was discovered in Switzerland. The huge collection of artifacts had a distinctive style. Artifacts of this 'La Tène style' were found elsewhere in Europe, "particularly in places where people called Celts were known to have lived and early Celtic languages are attested. As
3128-410: The conquest of the Boii in 191 BC, although the Ligurians were only finally subdued when the Apuani were defeated by Marcus Claudius Marcellus in 155 BC. Sometimes referred to as Gallia Citerior ("Hither Gaul"), Provincia Ariminum , or Gallia Togata ("Toga-wearing Gaul", indicating the region's early Romanization). Gallia Transpadana denoted that part of Cisalpine Gaul between the Padus (now
3196-592: The early 6th century BC; its name has a Celtic etymology: "[city] in the middle of the [Padanic] plain". Polybius , in the 2nd century BC, wrote that the Celts in northern Italy co-existed with Etruscan nations during a period before the Sack of Rome in 390 BC. Ligures lived on the Northern Mediterranean Coast straddling southeast French and North-west Italian coasts, including parts of Tuscany , Elba island and Corsica . Ligurian tribes were also present in Latium (see Rutuli ) and in Samnium. According to Plutarch they called themselves Ambrones , which suggests
3264-452: The early Celts comes from Greco-Roman writers, who often grouped the Celts as barbarian tribes. They followed an ancient Celtic religion overseen by druids . The Celts were often in conflict with the Romans , such as in the Roman–Gallic wars , the Celtiberian Wars , the conquest of Gaul and conquest of Britain . By the 1st century AD, most Celtic territories had become part of the Roman Empire . By c. 500, due to Romanisation and
3332-404: The far side of the Alps"). Gallia Cisalpina was further subdivided into Gallia Cispadana and Gallia Transpadana , i.e., its portions south and north of the Po River , respectively. The Roman province of the 1st century BC was bounded on the north and west by the Alps, in the south as far as Placentia by the river Po , and then by the Apennines and the river Rubicon , and in the east by
3400-431: The identification of the Adriatic Veneti with the Paphlagonian Enetoi led by Antenor — which he attributes to Sophocles (496–406 BC) — had been a mistake caused by the similarity of the names. In 391 BC, Celts "who had their homes beyond the Alps, streamed through the passes in great strength and seized the territory that lay between the Apennine mountains and the Alps" according to Diodorus Siculus . The Roman army
3468-408: The latter 20th century, when it was accepted that the oldest known Celtic-language inscriptions were those of Lepontic from the 6th century BC and Celtiberian from the 2nd century BC. These were found in northern Italy and Iberia, neither of which were part of the 'Hallstatt' nor 'La Tène' cultures at the time. The Urnfield-Hallstatt theory was partly based on ancient Greco-Roman writings, such as
SECTION 50
#17327754659383536-434: The law appoints two viri and four viri juri dicundo and also mentions a Prefect of Mutina. Virgil , Catullus and Livy , three famous sons of the province , were born in Gallia Cisalpina . The Canegrate culture reflects a late Bronze Age to early Iron Age culture in the Pianura Padana . These areas are now known as western Lombardy , eastern Piedmont and Canton Ticino . The Canegrate culture testifies to
3604-399: The legion was transferred to Poetovium (modern Ptuj ). The legion must have won a victory around this time that earned them the cognomen Augusta. At least a detachment also stayed in Burnum , Illyricum where their stamped tiles have been found. Around 45 under Claudius, the VIII Augusta took part in the suppression of the Thracian uprising, and founded its castrum at Novae where
3672-445: The migration of Germanic tribes, Celtic culture had mostly become restricted to Ireland, western and northern Britain, and Brittany . Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from surrounding cultures. Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of
3740-432: The northwest part of the Alps that, through the Alpine passes , penetrated and settled in the western Po valley between Lake Maggiore and Lake Como ( Scamozzina culture ). They brought a new funerary practice— cremation —which supplanted inhumation . It has also been proposed that a more ancient proto-Celtic presence can be traced back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (16th–15th century BC), when, regarding
3808-407: The point of no return". The province was merged into Italia about 42 BC, as part of Octavian's "Italicization" program during the Second Triumvirate . The dissolution of the provincia required a new governing law or lex , although its contemporary title is unknown. The parts of it inscribed on a bronze tablet preserved in the museum at Parma are entirely concerned with arranging the judiciary:
3876-462: The presence of inscriptions. The modern idea of a Celtic cultural identity or "Celticity" focuses on similarities among languages, works of art, and classical texts, and sometimes also among material artefacts, social organisation , homeland and mythology . Earlier theories held that these similarities suggest a common "racial" ( race is now a contested concept) origin for the various Celtic peoples, but more recent theories hold that they reflect
3944-399: The production of bronze artefacts, including ornaments, North Western Italy appears to have been closely linked to the western groups of the Tumulus culture ( Central Europe , 1600 BC – 1200 BC). The bearers of the Canegrate culture maintained its homogeneity for only a century, after which it melded with the Ligurian aboriginal populations and with this union gave rise to a new phase called
4012-420: The province full Roman citizenship. The Rubicon River marked its southern boundary with Italia proper. By crossing this river in 49 BC with his loyal XIII Legion , returning from the conquest of Gaul , Julius Caesar precipitated the civil war within the Roman Republic which led, eventually, to the establishment of the Roman Empire . To this day the term "crossing the Rubicon" means, figuratively, "reaching
4080-483: The same origin, referring to the Gauls who invaded southeast Europe and settled in Galatia . The suffix -atai might be a Greek inflection. Linguist Kim McCone suggests it comes from Proto-Celtic *galatis ("ferocious, furious"), and was not originally an ethnic name but a name for young warrior bands . He says "If the Gauls' initial impact on the Mediterranean world was primarily a military one typically involving fierce young *galatīs , it would have been natural for
4148-400: The unit was stationed until the 5th century. The legion also fought the Parthian Empire with Septimius Severus , who ruled from 193 until 211, and with his successors. Records indicate that they were still active during the first years of the fourth century at the Rhine frontier. This means that the history of the legion covers more than 400 years of almost continuous service. In 371 it
SECTION 60
#17327754659384216-532: The ways in which the Iron Age people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group. The history of pre-Celtic Europe and Celtic origins is debated. The traditional "Celtic from the East" theory, says the proto-Celtic language arose in the late Bronze Age Urnfield culture of central Europe, named after grave sites in southern Germany, which flourished from around 1200 BC. This theory links
4284-404: Was a Celtic language with some similarity to Gaulish. The Ligurian-Celtic question is also discussed by Barruol (1999). Ancient Ligurian is listed either as Celtic (epigraphic) or Para-Celtic (onomastic). The Veneti were Indo-European people who inhabited north-eastern Italy , in an area corresponding to the modern-day region of the Veneto , Friuli , and Trentino . By the 4th century BC
4352-572: Was again stationed in Argentoratum, according to an inscription. Later, the Roman general Stilicho , was compelled to move the German legions back to Italy to defend it against the Visigothic invasion. According to Notitia Dignitatum , around 420 an Octaviani unit was under the Magister Peditum of Italia ; it is possible that this unit was the old VIII Augusta, which was originally a comitatensis unit but had been promoted to palatina status. - ri[…] G̣allorum tribunus militum legionis VIII Augustae . Cohort of Gauls, military [tribune] of
4420-442: Was an area where travellers frequently stopped and had contact with the Hallstatt culture to the west, the Urnfield culture to the north and with the Villanova culture to the south. The Golasecca culture was initially concentrated in the foothills area south of the Alps. It later spread throughout the lakes area, and established many settlements representing this original culture. The oldest remains found thus far can be dated from
4488-436: Was given to them by others or not, it was used by the Celts themselves. Greek geographer Strabo , writing about Gaul towards the end of the first century BC, refers to the "race which is now called both Gallic and Galatic ", though he also uses Celtica as another name for Gaul. He reports Celtic peoples in Iberia too, calling them Celtiberi and Celtici . Pliny the Elder noted the use of Celtici in Lusitania as
4556-501: Was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze Age , circa 1200 BC to 700 BC. The spread of iron-working led to the Hallstatt culture (c. 800 to 500 BC) developing out of the Urnfield culture in a wide region north of the Alps. The Hallstatt culture developed into the La Tène culture from about 450 BC, which came to be identified with Celtic art . In 1846, Johann Georg Ramsauer unearthed an ancient grave field with distinctive grave goods at Hallstatt , Austria. Because
4624-404: Was routed in the battle of Allia , and Rome was sacked in 390 BC by the Senones . The defeat of the combined Samnite , Celtic and Etruscan alliance by the Romans in the Third Samnite War ending in 290 BC sounded the beginning of the end of the Celtic domination in mainland Europe. At the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC, a large Celtic army was trapped between two Roman forces and crushed. In
#937062